Standing Guard

By Wayne LaPierre, Executive Vice President

Let’s Prove Bloomberg Can’t Buy American Liberty

Billionaire Michael Bloomberg, among the world’s richest men, believes his personal fortune can erase the liberty of every American who would exercise the right to keep and bear arms. He plans liquidation of our rights a step-at-a-time—spending millions of dollars of his bottomless personal fortune at a time.

With much ballyhoo from his media enablers, the former mayor of New York City has set his angry sights, using his deep pockets, on destroying the Second Amendment.

To that end, Bloomberg has pledged $50 million to bankroll an Astroturf effort in the upcoming November elections—money he claims will overwhelm the majority of Americans who cherish their freedoms.

Melding his largely failed “Mayors Against Illegal Guns” with another Bloomberg creation called “Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America,” Bloomberg is now bankrolling something called “Everytown for Gun Safety.”

Bloomberg’s money and media access are a serious danger to American liberty and we must take him head on.

He announced his new effort in a bizarre April 15, 2014 interview in the New York Times in which he claimed himself “a rock star” among ordinary Americans.

“Rock Star” Bloomberg threatened to retaliate against elected officials who support the Second Amendment saying, “We’ve got to make them afraid of us.”

What Bloomberg and his elitist cronies will never understand is what saves the Second Amendment is the tidal wave of support from the majority of the American people. And decade after decade, NRA has been their voice.

We are millions of kindred spirits, good people who share a love for America and stand up for the values we hold dear in our hearts. We are the good guys.

Even some media elites who support Bloomberg’s radical gun-ban agenda were actually shocked at Bloomberg’s arrogance, especially when he declared:

“I’m telling you, if there is a God, when I get to heaven, I’m not stopping to be interviewed. I am heading right straight in. I have earned my place in heaven. It’s not even close.’” (emphasis added),

It’s no wonder even the liberal New York magazine dubbed Bloomberg a “megalomaniacal billionaire.” Good call.

Bloomberg, who has badgered and bullied ordinary New Yorkers for a dozen years by banning big soft drinks, traditional cuisine, even banning the bells on ice-cream trucks as noise pollution, is now determined to impose his obsessions on all Americans.

Above all, he wants to spread his draconian New York City gun controls to every home in America. Recently, licensed New York City gun owners received notices that their registered guns—like semi-auto .22s—were contraband. Turn ‘em in, they were told.

That’s Bloomberg’s “common sense” gun control.

“Big Brother” knows best.

Bloomberg believes his money can buy anything—even the liberty of individual Americans. After all, his personal fortune bought him public office.

Here is a man who personally purchased the office of Mayor of New York laying out $74 million in 2001 (at $99 per vote); in 2005 spending $85 million ($112 per vote); and in 2009 throwing down $102 million (about $174 per vote.)

Those aren’t my numbers, that’s the assessment of the New York Times which said, Bloomberg “has now spent at least $261 million of his own money in pursuit of public office, more than anyone in history.”

Now with his $50 million creation, “Everytown for Gun Safety,” Bloomberg is out to buy himself a grassroots machine. Just maybe, this time, he can do it. We cannot take his threat as anything but a seminal danger to everything we have fought and won over the years.

But as I said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Bloomberg’s money can’t buy our freedom.

We are millions of like-minded Americans who share values Bloomberg can’t buy—a profound belief in American liberty and a passion for standing up and defending it.

I urge you to sign up a new NRA member—a friend, a family member, a colleague—to grow our grassroots strength as influential, voting citizens intent on making history November 4. The cost of a new membership is $25—less than a tank of gas, or even a box of cartridges. It’s literally pennies a day—a small price to pay to protect American freedom now and for the future.